PLS TEAMS TO SHARE E1.5M IN TV DEAL!

MBABANE – The wait is finally over as premier league teams will be soaked in cash from the TV rights deal.

Last night, Premier League of Swaziland PLS Chairman Victor Gamedze, in his keynote address during the association’s AGM at Sigwaca House, announced the ground-breaking move for elite football after Swazi TV paid out the first batch of the deal.

And the league announced that teams will share E1.5 million from the E2 million announced last season.Gamedze said the money will be distributed according to the sizes of the clubs in terms of revenue generating capacity. He said it was no longer a secret that teams do not generate revenue equally to the league and said they have records in the office, which reflected who were the most valuable clubs in terms of bringing in money into the organisation.

“The teams are categorised according to A, B,C and D which are the new comers in the league. Even in Spain the big teams with a larger following get the lion’s share of the grant from such grants,” he said.Young Buffaloes PLS Governor Vusumango Dlamini, argued that teams have equal status by virtue of playing at the same division, and that they should all get an equal share of the grants.“The big teams cannot make money on their own, the supporters flock to the stadium because there is competition which the other teams bring,” he said.

The TV deal came about from a partnership between the PLS and Swazi TV, who bought the rights to broadcast the MTN League live last season. The money has not been shared, but yesterday it was revealed that the television station has deposited the first batch of the money that will be distributed to teams. The exercise seeks to assist clubs get something to boost their financial coffers. The deal unfortunately benefits premier league clubs.The chairman said the grants will not be annual, but was something they did to empower clubs. Meanwhile, Gamedze came hard on artificial club directors who he said were running teams on lies. He said these were some of the reasons supporters then took over the administration of teams, which on its own caused problems for the PLS.